Rung's Adventure with his Sparkling
by youllbeinmyheart1997
Summary: A sparkling was abandoned on Rung's metaphorical doorstep. Said sparkling is called Paian. Paian is aboard The Lost Light. Chaos shall ensue. I do not take any previous interactions of the character "Rung" into consideration
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: A new story! Yay! This one takes place in the "More Than Meets The Eye" universe. Ya know, the one that came out about a year ago?**

**Anyway, I was thinking the other day: It's been four million years, shouldn't they be reproducing already? So, this story is basically an abandoned sparkling that is found by Rung, the psychiatrist. Rung adopted it and brought it along on board the Lost Light.**

**I'll think up a name at the end of the chapter...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: MTMTE.**

* * *

By this time of night, even the angriest of protestors had gone back to their ships. All was now quiet.

Except for a mech running swiftly and quietly through the night, weaving between the ships and broken buildings. The shadows provided ample cover for the mech, but it was painfully obvious that the mech was extremely tired. He was also carrying something in his arms, but it was too dark to see what it was.

Optics surveyed each ship carefully, as if each ship were undergoing a type of judgement. It looked as if he couldn't find a suitable ship, so he moved on to the buildings, which is where the Autobots were living. The mech bypassed the barrel of Kimia's gun completely.

By now, he was muttering to himself. "Rodimus...Too overconfident. Drift... Too crazy. Chromedome and Rewind... Not stable enough. Ultra Magnus... Too uptight. Swerve, Brainstorm, Whirl, Red Alert are out of the question. Perceptor is responsible, but he may not pay attention. same with Ratchet. Rung could be a good mech. Yes, I'll go to Rung."

Thr mech ran towards where Rung was staying, which was in one of the more sturdier buildings, because Rung still has his psychiatric practice. He looked around slowly, before quickly approaching the practice, cooing softly at the bundle in his arms.

He kissed the bundle, then placed it on the doorstep. He said, "Do not worry, my sweetspark. You will have a better life than I could ever give you."

Then he ran back where he came from, and disappeared. A few moments later, an engine could be heard, then the night was silent again.

Now that the bundle was not covered by the mech, you could plainly see what it was. A tiny sparkling, not even an orn old, was lying on its back and covered with a warm blanket. It cried out for the loss of warmth, waving its small white hands in the air.

The door to Rung's practice opened. Rung, an orange and white mech with big blue optics and big optic ridges, looked down in shock. He picked up the sparkling gently and held it close to his chest. It snuggled closer to him and fell into recharge.

Rung looked up and down the street, and when he didn't see anyone, he took the sparkling into his practice.

* * *

In Kimia, there was a wellknown medical practice, which was technically just a neutral ship, piloted by a NAIL that repaired Autobots, Decepticons, and NAILs alike. It was run by a NAIL called Hellion.

Hellion, despite his name, was a gentle spirit, who hated war and all the violence. So he had taken to the stars and had been to all the previous battlefields of the universe, helping any Cybertronian that was damaged.

Then, when he recieved the message that the war was over, he immediately returned to Cybertron, where he knew that every single surviving Cybertronian would gather, and along with them, injuries. He made himself known and has been repairing them for the past four million years.

But, when Rung had brough a sparkling into his humble practice, to say that Hellion was surprised was an understatement. Just like how saying a Decepticons is a liar is an understatement.

"Rung, how on Cybertron did you manage to find a sparkling?" Hellion asked, leading Rung into the office. "Set it on the berth."

"Well, it kind of showed on my doorstep last night." Rung replied, carefully placing the sparkling on the berth, though it struggled weakly to keep hold of Rung's neck.

"It seems quite attached to you." Hellion chuckled, scanning it with a medical scanner. "Well, its vitals are fine. But you can't feed a sparkling regular grade Energon, make sure to dilute it until the sparkling can stand on its own. Make sure to come back every other century. I'll give it a scan to see how the little sparklet's doing. Do you want to know the gender?"

"Yes, of course!" Rung replied eagerly, picking the sparkling back up.

Hellion scanned the sparkling again, and smiled.. "Hmm... It looks like you have a very healthy mechling. Congratulations."

"A mech..." Rung smiled. The sparkling gurgled up at Rung, and reached up to Rung's optics curiously. His cute faceplate was rounded, just like how many sparklings looked before the war. It also appeared to have tiny audial fins, just like Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus.

Hellion glanced at Rung and his new sparkling. "What will you name him?"

Rung looked closely at the sparking And went through every language he knew. It was red and white, as if destined to be a medic. A medic...

"I think... I'll name him... Paian." Rung smiled.

"Paian?" Hellion questioned. "That's an unusual name."

"It means 'healer' in Greek, a language on Earth." Rung said. "Bluestreak told me about it. Perhaps we will visit the planet again."

"Well, his colors are certainly suited to be a medic." Hellion said. "It is a beautiful name, Rung."

"Thank you." Paian then yawned widely, and the two adults laughed.

"It looks like its time to go home. I will be back in two centuries." Rung took his leave.

It was on that night, one million years later, Optimus Prime woke up near the corroded Manganese Mountains, one half of the Matrix in each hand.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that wasn't that bad of a start, don't you think? Make sure to review and suggestions!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm back! I'm glad so many people like this!**

**The next chapter will take place at the beginning of MTMTE series. In human terms, Paian is about six or seven years old. In my mind, it takes a long, long time for Cybertronians to mature because of all their biomechanics and such. So it will take another two million years for Paian to fully mature.**

**After re-reading the comic, I realized that Optimus had been missing for three weeks, so this is an AU-ish start.**

**Anyway, like I said, this chapter will be at the beginning on the series, in Optimus' POV.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. I only own Paian.**

* * *

I remember it well, the day I died. One moment I was falling into Vector Sigma, the Matrix burning a hole in my hand... And the next I was elsewhere. Alone but intact-reconstituted-and lost in a landscape I didn't recognize.

Oceans of metal shavings, geysers of molten lead... The horizon _itself_ a mess of stress fractures and weld decay.

This, surely, was the Afterspark- a waste world of lost lives and spent sparks and things that once were.

And yet, even as I considered the dark glass of an empty Matrix-something _no_ Autobot should ever have to see- I knew with a soft rush of sadness that I was still alive. Whoever was up there-whether it was Primus or his opposite-he wasn't done with me yet.

I remember thinking to myself: if I'm not dead-if this isn't the Afterspark-them where am I?

The stars gave me my answer: the constellations were as familiar to me as the sound of my body changing shape. This was Cybertron.

This- somehow- was home.

I wandered.

I _wondered_.

Was this Cybertron's ancient past? Was I witnessing the birth of the planet?

Once again, the answer was above my head: I could only see the smaller of Cybertron's two moons. Whenever I was, it was after Luna 1 disappeared.

So, if not the past, then the _future_?

At that moment, my GPS* kicked in. It told me that I was standing among the towering ruins of the Grand Impirium, and that if I looked left, I would see the Manganese Mountains in the distance.

That settled it: I was in the future; the distant future. A future where the Manganese Mountains had corroded away. A future where whole cities had been reduced to a patina of rust. A future where... Galvatron's Sweeps were still lying around?

It was at this point that I recalled something Ironhide used to say...

"Sometimes you just gotta stop thinking and take it as it comes."

I walked for hours, until the GPS told me I was looking at Greater Iacon. And although it resembled a shantytown or a bomb site or a spaceport gone to seed, it had something over the Iacon I'd known for the last few million years...

...It was _populated_.

Cybertronians of all shapes and sizes, going about their business. I didn't recognize them. That was surprising in itself. But what as even more surprising was that they didn't recognize me...

...Except that's not quite true.

"Hey, Pax! Orion Pax!" I turned around at the sound of my old name. A red and blue mech with spots on his cheekplates that resembled freckles, as the humans call them, was storming towards me with an angry look on his face. "You've got some _nerve_, showing your faceplate around here!"

I held my hands out, placatingly, and said, "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, friend. I don't know who you are."

"Tkae a look around you! _Satisfied?!_ This is all your fault!" He yelled, gesturing around him.

"If that is the case then I apologize. The last few days have been somewhat chaotic."

"The last few days? The last few _days_?! Try the last f_our million years!"_

'_...What?'_ I thought. A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Yo, Optimus! This NAIL bothering you?"

"Sideswipe!" And sure enough, there was Sideswipe, Whirl, and... Is that a sparkling on Sideswipe's shoulder?

"'NAIL?' What?"

"It's an acronym, one of Uncle Prowl's. 'Non affiliated indigenous life-form.'" The sparkling said, well, more like recited, earning a pat on the head from Sideswipe.

"Man, I love saying NAIL. NA-IL. You're a NAIL. Suits you." Sideswipe smirked at the...NAIL.

"You know what I like most about nails?" Whirl asked, leering(supposedly) at the NAIL.

"Hammering them?" The sparkling asked, innocently. He probably didn't know the implication of the phrase.

"Hammering- Ah, beat me to it, ya little squirt." Whirl patted the sparkling's head, just like Sideswipe.

I mentally shook myself into my leader-mode. "No ones hammering anyone, Whirl."

"Good to see you, Boss." Sideswipe returned his attention to me, while the NAIL sulked away. "Rodimus said you'd be okay. What happened to you? Where have you been? How's it feel to be a hate figure?"

And there's the Sipeswipe we all know and sometimes hate. "You'll forgive me if I ignore all those questions in favor of my own: just what the _hell_ is going on?"

* * *

Sideswipe led me to Autobot High Command, which was now the tallest standing building in the city. Sideswipe left me at the door, saying that he had to return Paian, the sparkling to his creator, who was, for some reason at the barrel of Kimia's gun.

It turned out I had been missing for nearly a million years. But even then, it takes longer than a million years for any sort of peace to fall on Cybertron.

The first people I saw when I entered the room was Rodimus, Bumblebee, Broadside, and Wheeljack.

"Well, well, look what the turbofox dragged in." Rodimus said, jovially.

"Rodimus, good to see you, old friend, and Bumblebee-" He interrupted me.

"Yeah, nice of you to _drop by_." Bumblebee said, dismissively. He turned to Broadside. "This new ship I. from the Vela Pulsar- it sounds like there's some tension with the_ Alchemy-Seven_ crew, so-"

"So how about I set them down on the south side. You got it." Broadside replied, lazily.

"Sorry about Bee. He's been a little busy. We_ all_ have." Rodimus apologized.

"Rodimus, if you're waiting for the right moment to fill me in, how about_ now_?" I requested.

He sighed heavily. "Short version, whatever happened at Vector Sigma-and I doubt even_ Perceptor or Wheeljack_ could explain the science-made Cybertron come alive again. Only it's-"

"_Primordial_. I saw."

"Right, so after the battle, all the survivors set up camp in the wreckage of Kimia, cause that was the only thing still _standing_. We sent a ship to pick up Bee, Prowl, and the gang from Earth, and when they got back, I was like, 'Well, besides Prime, I guess that's everybody.' Then Bee pointed up and the sky and..."

Rodimus rubbed the back of his helm. "So, ah... It seems Vector Sigma sent out a pulse. Prowl and Bee had heard it. I guess we probably did too. But we were hearing a lot of things-"

"Go on, Rodimus." I urged, so he could get to the point.

"Right. Well, _thousands of Cybertronians_ showed up- _Non-combatants_, Prime! I don't think any of us imagined there were so many out there-even _Prowl's_ estimates were off. Former Autobots, former Decepticons, pacifists, people that tried to stay neutral, that were scared off or had moral objections, or... Or _anything_. They'c been wandering around the universe all these millions of years, laying low, forming their own little groups..."

"And now they've come home." I finished.

Bumblebee finally walked over to us and looked at me for the first time in a million years. "With more showing up everyday, Prime. Expecting to find a paradise. Cybertron_ reborn,_ right? Except-"

"Except we've been _bitterly_ disappointed at what _your_ war has done to _our_ world. And what you continue to do by playing the part of an occupying force." A new, deep voice cut in.

"Metalhawk." I recognized the unique finials that stuck out from his forearms, and how he almost looks like what the humans called a 'samurai.'

"I'm surprised you remember me, Orion Pax." He glared up at me.

"I remember you_ ran_." I replied, shortly.

He narrowed his optics at me. "I have a duty to my people; to _Cybertron._ You were _killing_ our world. We were inspired when Dai Atlas and the Circle of Light left-"

"The Circle was a cult." I protested.

"'Autobots', 'Decepticons'-You were_ all_ cults." Metalhawk looked out the window. "Make no mistake; I do not represent another_ faction_. I represent _Cybertronians._ And we want our world back."

"You can't blame us! The Autobots defended you against-"

"Against a situation you _helped_ create. The Senate was corrupt, but you left it to the likes of Megatron to tear it down. The Decepticons were brutal, but at least they took action." He turned back to me.

"You're _defending_ Megatron?" I asked.

"No. But is Civil War the fault of the _oppressed_ or the_ oppressors_? Besides, it doesn't matter anymore. We outnumber you a _hundred_ to one, and there are more of us everyday. It's time you left, Pax. It's time _all_ of you left." And he promptly left the room.

Rodimus' glare followed Metalhawk out the door. "See what we've been putting up with, Prime? Now you're back. You got the Matrix. Just open it up and it'll- I don't know- Tame the planet and everything can go back to normal."

A pang of guilt went through me. I opened my chestplates and pulled out the two halves of what remains of the Matrix. "Easier said than done."

* * *

**A/N: I know, it didn't have that much of Paian, but then again, it doesn't really start out with much Rung, anyway.**

**I love this little prologue because it kind of gets you caught up to what's happening, so I hope you guys don't mind if I do this.**

**And yes, I WILL have better chapters later as I get Volume 3 and 4!**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm back! Thank you all so much for reading this! I've decided to update this because inspiration suddenly hit me! Plus, I had a free day, so this is how I decided to spend!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye. I only own Paian.**

* * *

_*Optimus' POV*_

Bumblebee showed me to where that had captured the remaining Decepticons. But, their prison was not what I had in mind. The more I saw, the worse things looked. With Megatron missing and Galvatron presumed dead, the Decepticons were directionless.

"You've herded them into the barrel of Kimia's gun?" I asked Bumblebee. "I don't like this."

"Well,_ yeah_. But we had to do something while they were still weak after becoming part of that... that weird gestalt monster _thing_." Bumblebee turned away from the prison.

And, if I am honest with myself, I felt like turning away myself.

"I'm not one of them! I don't _belong_ in here!"

"Prime, we can make a deal!"

"Let us out!"

"Prime, may I have a word, please?" Ratbat flew to the front of the pack.

"Oh,_ please_..." Starscream grumbled, right behind Ratbat.

"Optimus, _surely_ you can help a senator whose reputation has been unfairly tarnished..." Ratbat tried to negotiate with me.

"Ratbat, whatever your title, your time is long gone." I said to him, then turning my attention to the Decepticons behind Ratbat. "You _all_ chose the wrong side; now live with the consequences."

Then, Bumblebee gestured for me to lead the way.

"Is this place secure?" I asked Bumblebee, ignoring the shouts behind me.

"Well, they're all outfitted with I/D chips to...uh... keep track of them and..." Bumblebee sighed. "Honestly, Prime? I think they could get out if they wanted to... But where would they go?"

Bumblebee and I both knew that this was a temporary solution. The Decepticons were prisoners of war. What would become of them now that the war was over?

Perceptor called before I could ask the question. He'd been studying the remains of the Matrix. I could tell something was up because, for the first time in his life, he sounded... _excited_.

* * *

_*The workshop*_

As soon as I entered the workshop, I saw that Perceptor was standing near one of the Matrix halves, while Rewind, an archivist, held the other half. The sparkling I saw with Sideswipe earlier was also with them, clinging onto Perceptor's cannon turret.

When he noticed me, Perceptor carefully pried the sparkling off of himself and placed him on the ground. "Why don't you go find your father, Paian?"

The sparkling, Paian, smiled brightly at Perceptor and ran out of the workshop, arms out and mimicking a Seeker.

Perceptor turned back to me. "That is Paian, Rung's sparkling."

"Cute little thing, isn't he?" Rewind chimed in.

I vaguely remembered Rung as Red Alert's psychiatrist. I nodded slightly, and returned my attention to the problem at hand.

"What did you discover, Perceptor?"

"Well, I promised to let Rewind go first. I called him down here because-"

"-There's an inscription on the inside!" Rewind said, excitedly.

"What does it say?" I asked, smiling behind my mask.

Rewind said something what may have been Cybertronian, but in no dialect I had ever heard before.

I clumsily repeated what Rewind had said, then asked, "What is that? Old Cybertronian?"

"Old,_ old_ Cybertronian."

"Pre-war?"

"Pre-_everything_." Rewind replied. "I think it says 'many from one' or 'one from many.' Not sure of the syntax. And there's more, too. Something about light. Compressed light? Trapped light? And _here_, it talks about a _fist_. Either a fist or a hand."

"The Guiding Hand." I said.

"The _what_? I've studied Cybertronian history all my life and I've never heard of it." Rewind said, confused.

"Not '_it_.' _Them_." I said. "Thanks to the Matrix, I was privy to certain details. A _rival_ set of facts. _Alternate_ truths. Now I feel all of it slipping away- lost forever."

"Maybe not. You see, the are just a caption to a much_ bigger_ picture. The Matrix is a _photonic crystal_, composed of billions of metallo-dielectric nanostructures. I assumed the crystal was naturally occurring, but it's not. It's _synthetic._ It contains _deliberate_ fracture lines. It was _designed_ to split open. I had no idea why that might be until I trained a spotlight on it, and _this_ happened."

The half-Matrix lit up, then the light broke into tiny individual specks of light that arranged themselves in patterns that I never seen before.

"What... am I looking at?"

"Optimus, I think... I think the Matrix is a_ map_."

* * *

_We didn't see it coming. Or if we did, we chose to ignore it._

_But the first protestor became ten. Ten became a hundred. And a hundred became a thousand. And all the while High command was holed up inside Kimia, happy to be distracted by other matters..._

* * *

I stood on the balcony, looking over the thousands of protestors against the Autobots. I saw hundreds of signs against both Autobot and Decepticons. 'Under conditions of peace, the war-like attack themselves.' Makes you wonder what the other signs say, for I did not bother to look. But one thing I couldn't help notice is the figure of me hanging from a pole, as if I were being... what was the human word? Crucified?

Behind me, Prowl, Ultra Magnus, Bumblebee, Rodimus, and Drift were having an argument, like always.

"The map that Perceptor found in the Matrix... It's not just any map. It's_ the_ map. It shows the way to _Cyberutopia_- To the Knights of Cybertron_ themselves_!" Drift said, airily.

"The Knights of Cybertron." Bumblebee said, dubiously. "As in the entirely_ fictional_ Knights of Cybertron?"

"The original Cybertronians!" Drift corrected. "They turned this planet into a _paradise_ and then left to spread peace and enlightenment across the universe."

"And that was supposed to be, what _ten million years ago_? And no one's heard from them since. And what we think we know about them is based on contested texts and artifacts of _dubious_ authenticity."

"They never existed, Drift." Prowl said, bitterly. "They were invented by 'disciples' like Dai Atlas as an excuse to hide away in Crystal City and pretend war was something that happened only to other people."

"Even assuming the Knights of Cybertron_ are_ real, what makes you think that the Matrix Map relates to them?" Bumblebee asked Drift.

"I spent time in Crystal City. Dai Atlas was _obsessed_ with finding what he called the Road map to Cyberutopia. His name in Old Cybertronian is Dei Atlas- Literally, 'God Map.' Ha always said the Matrix was the key." Drift explained.

"You really think this map will lead us to the Knights of Cybertron?" Rodimus asked out of the blue.

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's fire up Omega Supreme and-"

"And _nothing._" Bumblebee interrupted. "We've got work to do here. Now's not the time to go chasing after myths."

"Take a look outside, Bumblebee. Listen to that crowd. We don't _belong_ here anymore!" Rodimus shouted.

"How can you _say_ that? How can you even _think_ that? This is our _home_!" Prowl protested.

"We're all in this _together_. We just need to convince the NAILS of our good intentions. This is our opportunity to start over." Bumblebee pleaded to Rodimus.

"Yeah, well good luck with that. But as soon as I get the chance, I'm _gone_." Rodimus replied, stubbornly.

"Oh _please_. Haven't we been here before? Are you going to have a _tantrum_ and storm off every time you have to do something you disagree with?"

"This isn't me having a tantrum. This is me _growing up_." Rodimus ranted. "Why throw everything away just to start over again? Maybe carrying the Matrix changed me, but I'm not ready to write off ten million years of our culture just yet. I still believe in the old ways- and the Knights of Cybertron epitomize the old ways. Find the Knights an we regain everything we've los-"

At that very moment, a massive explosion went off literally on our doorstep. We were flung across the room and into a pile a rubble.

Prowl was first to recover. "What just happened?"

_"Prowl? This is Sideswipe. Do you copy?"_

"I copy."

_"One of the NAILS just lobbed a power cell at you. They took it from one of their ships. It's escalating out here, and were seriously outnumbered. There's fifty of us, and a thousand of them. A thousand and counting! Can you send Omega?"_

"Negative He's still recharging." Prowl replied. The rest of us had already recovered and were paying rapt attention to Prowl and Sideswipe's conversation.

_"Well, you've gotta do something, Prowl! They're gonna storm the building!"_

"Are lives at risk? This is_ important,_ Sideswipe!_ Are Autobots' lives at risk?_" Prowl practically shouted into the comm.

_"We're dropping like flies, Prowl!"_

"Okay, okay. That's all I needed to hear." Prowl took a deep intake. "I'm going to ask you to do something, and you're going to protest, and I'm going to insist, and we're all going to live with the consequences."

_"What is it, Prowl! Hurry!"_

"I need you to release the Decepticons."

* * *

**A/N: FINALLY! FINISHED!**

**I know there's not much of Paian, but there will be soon! So please just bear with me!**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm back! I'm having fun writing this story! Especially Optimus' POV! He's so awesome! But I can't wait to type more Paian!  
**

**Thanks to everyone who reads this!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Transformers:**** MTMTE. I only own Paian.**

* * *

_*Optimus' POV*_

Terrible things happen in war.

Terrible things happen in peace, as well.

I like to think that Prowl regretted telling Sideswipe to release the Decepticons, no matter how pragmatic a decision it seemed at the time. I like to think that he looked back and cursed himself for letting the genie out of the bottle.

But that doesn't sound like the Prowl I know.

For their part, the Decepticons knew a good deal when they heard one: freedom of movement in exchange for helping out with _crowd control_.

Bumblebee told me the _I/D chips_ he and Prowl had implanted weren't for identification-they were _inhibitor/deterrence chips_. The inhibitor portion stopped the Decepticons from using alt-modes and built-in weaponry... And if they failed to exercise restraint, the deterrence half could be detonated.

My definition of "restraint" clearly differed from Prowl and Bumblebee's.

Metalhawk tried to calm things down, but in doing so made himself a target.

And while the Autobots outside were busy fighting the very bots they'd once swore to protect, High Command were still busy fighting _each other_.

I knew what I had to do, so I did it before I changed my mind.

"MY FELLOW CYBERTRONIANS!" I boomed out into the crowd, gaining everyone's attention. "I stand before you today not as your master, not as your servant, but as your _equal_. What power I have, I exercise in the interests of the Cybertronian race. I an _accountable_ to you. And if it is your will that I should surrender that power, so be it. But first, I ask you to listen to me.

"When I became a Prime, I wrote_ two speeches_, filed away until the war was over. I would give one speech in the event of _victory_, the other in the event of _defeat_.

"Standing before you today, I do not know which to give...

"To the new arrivals, I say this: We Autobots bear no ill will. You had every right to leave Cybertron, and every right to return. But to those who _stayed behind_ have rights too- they have the right to live _alongside_ you, on a planet they won back _on your behalf_. They sacrificed more than you know, and I salute them." I paused, about to make the most difficult, yet freeing decision I have every made.

"As for me... I have come to realize one thing. _I am the war_." There were many angry murmurs throughout the crowd. "In your eyes at least, I _am_ the war. I represent everything that you sought to escape from- everything you _rejected_. As such, I am an obstacle to peace- something I have no wish to be." I paused again, steeling myself. "And that is why, tomorrow morning, I am leaving Cybertron _forever_." As I expected, every Autobot in the crowd shouted in protest. I raised my servo, and continued. "I ask only that you give my Autobots the right to remain. I will go, if you will let them _stay_."

* * *

The crowd dispersed.

Night fell, and preparations were made by myself and by others for what would come next.

I had collected the two halves of the Matrix from Perceptor's lab, and began looking for the two 'Bots that I trusted the most.

I found them both on the balcony I had made my speech on a few hours ago.

"Everything I said before- it still stands, and as for your grand plan..." Rodimus chuckled darkly. "Thanks to Prowl, we've got two hundred _bored Decepticons_ roaming the streets and four hundred NAILS _demanding_ compensation for their injuries. You _really_ think you're going to make this a happy place?"

"I'm going to _try! Someone_ has to!" Bumblebee replied.

"_Calm down_. When we find the _Knights of Cybertron_ we'll take this planet back to the Golden Age. _That's_ what's gonna unite us." Rodimus said.

"There never _was_ a Golden Age! You're deluding yourself, Rodimus!" Bumblebee shouted.

"And _you're_ sounding _crazy_! You've lost sight of everything that makes us _Cybertronian_! You seem hellbent on- on- _Prime_, I..." I had stepped out of the shadows, and held one half of the Matrix in each hand.

"Yeah, about that whole _exile_ thing..." Bumblebee tried to explain, but I cut them off. I held out one half of the Matrix to each of them, then turned away and didn't look back.

* * *

I remember it well, the day I died. It was the day I left Cybertron. _This_ day. _Today_.

And yes of _course_ there's a voice inside me and says 'stay.' It's the same voice that says that Megatron is still out there, and that if he returns- _when_ he returns- he'll take one look at any _post-war coalition_ and start tearing it apart. But Megatron is nothing without followers, and if Bumblebee and Metalhawk can deliver on their promises, the Cybertronians will reject him as surely as they have rejected me.

My fellow Autobots think I have made the ultimate sacrifice, when in fact what I have done is uniquely _selfish_.

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings- even me. And for the first time ever, I am free. I am responsible for no one. I am beholden to no one.

More than that, I an changed. I no longer carry the Matrix. I no longer command an army.

'Optimus Prime' is dead, and _Orion Pax_ is reborn.

* * *

**A/N: Done with this chapter! Yay! **

**So, the next chapter will be more 3rd person POV, and will have more Paian! I can't wait! Thanks for all who have stuck with this story!**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm back! I love this story so much! I've updated this one more frequently, so that kind of proves it...**

**Anyway, we're finally gonna officially meet Paian! Yay!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: MTMTE. I only own Paian.**

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"Daddy!" A red and white sparkling with audial fins peeled through the practice. "Can I watch cartoons on the DataNet?"

"Alright, Paian. Nothing too violent, alright? Your bedtime is pretty soon." Rung replied, smiling at the squeals before turning back to his patient. "I'm sorry, Paian gets a bit excited sometimes."

"It's alright. He's the first sparkling since before the War, right?" Bluestreak said. "I'm really surprised that he's as hyper and happy as he is, especially since there are no other sparklings around. I can't believe that you still have toys from when you were a child, Rung..."

Paian ignored his daddy's rambling patient and turned on the DataNet to see his Uncle Rodimus on the screen. _"They say that twelve million years ago, on this very spot, the first Cybertronian realized he could change shape. Six million years ago, right here, Nova Prime told the world that he built an Ark."_

"Like my toys!" Paian giggled, settling down on the floor, holding a stuff turbofox to his chassis.

_"And four million years ago to the day, Optimus Prime stood where I now stand and turned down Megatron's first and only invitation to surrender. What happens here tomorrow will rank alongside those moments. Tomorrow, this patch of land will become a launch pad. Tomorrow, I will board the Lost Light and set off in search of our ancestors. They were known as the Knights of Cybertron. They're real. I'm going to find them. And I want all of you to come with me."_

"What are you watching, Paian?" Rung asked, walking into the room.

"Uncle Rod'mus!"

_"Bumblebee says it's your duty to stay here, on a planet you no longer recognize, among people who resent you for the sacrifices you've made in their name. I say: you've done your duty. The war is over. That day you never thought would come? That's today. You've earned the right to see the universe without a gun in your hand..."_

Paian eventually got bored of the speech and turned the channel to 'Adventures of the Thirteen Primes.'

However, Rung was thinking about what Rodimus said about 'seeing the universe without a gun in your hand.'

As a psychoanalyst, it was his job to look at everything from all angles. Paian seemed interested in going out to the stars, and exploring the universe. However, as Paian's father, it may be better for Paian to grow up on stable ground, and not in a ship that may or may not return to Cybertron. But on the other servo, the NAILs may not accept him, first sparkling in four million years or not. Maybe it would be better for Paian to grow up surrounded by Autobots, beings who would accept him, and would most likely already know him. He already knew the entire Autobot High Command, plus a few others that will probably go with Rodimus.

Perhaps he will ask Paian...

"Paian." Said sparkling pulled him attention away from the screen. "Would you like to see what is out there?"

"Out where?" Paian cocked his helm to the side.

"In outer space. In the cosmos." Rung gestured up to the sky.

"Like, an astronaut? Like in a ship?"

Rung nodded, and Paian grinned and nodded rapidly. "Yeah! Like in the stories you told me!"

Rung smiled, then said, "Alright, go pack your things. We shall leave with Uncle Rodimus tomorrow."

"Yay!" Paian jumped up and down, then ran off to his room to pack his things. Rung stood up as well to pack his Ark models.

Hopefully, he made the right decision.

* * *

_*The next day...*_

The space port was packed with more than two hundred mechs just waiting to be accepted onto the Lost Light.

Red Alert watched all of them with suspicion. He may have gone to therapy, but he still doesn't fully trust anyone.

Even now, he had to check out Brainstorm's infamous yellow briefcase, and he was pretty sure if he opened it, it would not pass his inspection.

"Are you _kidding_? This case contains a work in progress! If I open it outside if a controlled environment, do you know what would happen? The end of the world, my friend, the end of the world! I'm serious! I'm almost certain!" Brainstorm gave his thin excuses. "Besides, I'm exempt from all security checks! Specially from Rodimus! You can check the rubsign. It's authentic."

"So, as _head of security_, I'm supposed to just let the galaxy's most famous weapons engineer onboard without checking his bag?" Red Alert asked dubiously.

"Most famous weapons engineer? You've been reading my Autopedia entry-"

"Sorry, did I say famous? I meant _notorious_. Next!"

"Name?" Red Alert said, without looking up from his datapad.

"Megatron, but you can call me death."

"Swerve, please telling you're here to wave us off." Red Alert asked, not looking up at the red and white minibot.

"No, no, no! I'm here for the quest! Love a good quest. Haven't been on a quest since the whole Luna 1 thing. The Moonquest." Swerve babbled on.

"Stop saying quest."

"So, can I go on board?"

"Of course, if you promise to never, ever speak. Next!"

"Hi, Uncle Red!" A small voice piped up from the ground.

"Hello, Paian. Rung. What's in the crate?" Red Alert got down to business.

"Just some model space crafts, Arks mainly."

"We were at war for four million years. How did you manage to hold onto this stuff?" Red Alert asked, while Paian grabbed one of the Arks and ran into the Lost Light, making airplane noises, and saying hello to all the mechs that he knew.

"I guess I just have a knack for keeping things out of harm's-" Rung was cut off when a giant purple jet came out of nowhere, knocking Rung off the platform and causing his arm to break off at the upper arm.

Rung was rushed to the medical lab, but none of the medics were there yet, so all he could do was wait.

* * *

_*The bridge of The Lost Light*_

"And the total so far is... Two hundred and eight." Drift reported, holding a datapad that connected directly to Red Alert's list of passengers.

"Oh yes. Stick that up your tailpipe, Bumblebee." Rodimus gloated out in the general direction of Kimia. "You know, when I gave that 'gun in your hand' speech I-"

"Great speech." Drift said, absently.

"Thanks... I never imagined so many would sign up. Two hundred and eight? That's amazing. That's gotta be some sort of record." Rodimus said.

"Your new crews mates, Ultra Magnus." Drift said, passing the datapad to him. As soon as Ultra Magnus looked at it, he began frowning. "Why are you frowning? I mean, frowning even more than normal?"

"He's dangerous, he's delusional, he's a liar, he's mad(I mean literally mad), he was demoted after that incident with the turbofox, I arrested him for impersonating a senior officer, he owes me money, I don't trust him _or_ him, especially not in their combined form, and if he is who I think he is, never, ever let him near a crossbow." Ultra Magnus concluded. "And those a only the A's."

Drift and Rodimus rolled their optics as Magnus handed the datapad to Rodimus for him to look over. "You should have put me at the door. I'd turn away any wayward characters."

"Magnus, your definition of a wayward character is an Autobot who wears their badge at an _angle_." Rodimus deadpanned, as he accepted the datapad.

"In direct contravention of the Military Regalia Act!"

Rodimus sighed, and began looking over the crew. "Sometimes I wonder how you see the world, my friend."

* * *

Chromedome and Rewind were walking through the halls, looking for a habitation suite for themselves. Rewind wanted to go on this quest in order to look for someone while Chromedome was simply following him because he was Rewind's Conjunx Endura.

"Hi Uncle 'Dome! Uncle Rewind!" A small voice chimed from behind them. They smirked at each other behind their masks, then turned around to see Rung's sparkling, Paian, running towards them, his toy Ark up in the air.

"How you doing, Paian?" Rewind asked jovially, as Chromedome picked Paian up and placed him on his shoulders. "I didn't know you and Rung were on the quest! Speaking of which, where is your father?"

"He's got a big boo-boo, so he had to go to the medic." Paian replied, holding his Ark out to Chromedome. "Can we go visit him? Pleeeeeeease?"

"Alright, alright. We'll go drop you off at the medbay." Chromedome caved, prying Paian away from his audial fins. Paian was then propped up on a tan hip and they were on their way to the medbay.

But they were halfway there when suddenly the walls around them shook. For a brief moment, the feeling of traveling through space washed over them. As soon as they began moving, they stopped. Chromedome and Rewind rushed Paian to the Medbay and went to the main room to see what had happened.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Rodimus was shouting for a status report.

"We quantum jumped before we were ready! We've hopped halfway across the galaxy and we're flying blind!" Mainframe reported. "And I'm sorry but I don't know why!"

"Damage?"

"One of the rear thrusters exploded, Deck 6 is in flames and- oh no."

"What? What is it?!" Rodimus asked.

"We've got a hull breach- one of the hangers on the upper decks!" Mainframe's servo were flying over the keyboard. "Resealing... Now. Structural integrity restored. Heat shields in place." Mainframe turned to Rodimus as the red alert signal disappeared. "Rodimus?"

"Set us down. We're not going anywhere until we find out why the quantum engines malfunctioned." Rodimus ordered.

"Sensors indicate we're missing Fizzle, Polaris, Waverider, Hyperion, Rad... We're down forty Autobots, Rodimus." Drift reported, extremely worried. "They must have been... I mean, the breach must've-"

"They're not dead, I'll tell you that now. _No one_ dies on my watch. No one. Not this time. We'll find them. As soon as we touch down, we'll find them. We'll find them and we'll fix them and we'll get back on track, and we'll make this day a _good_ day."

* * *

*On the planet below*

"Big place. Where do we start?" Rodimus commented to Ultra Magnus.

The planet looked a bit like an Earth desert. Dry, cracked ground, clear sky, except the sky was orange instead of blue. At the moment, the sky was filled with meteors.

"How about over there?" Ultra Magnus pointed towards the meteor shower.

Rodimus voiced his question and Magnus replied, "That's not a meteor shower. That's Fizzle, Polaris, Waverider, Hyperion, Rad... They're burning up in the atmosphere."

Rodimus pinched the bridge of his nasal ridge. "Not a good start."

"Excuse me?" Ultra Magnus asked, honestly not hearing Rodimus.

"I said _not a good start_." Rodimus sighed. "Well, let's get started."

* * *

_*Cybertron: Prowl's quarters*_

A lone datapad on the floor went off.

_"Hello-ksszk! Hello? Can anyone hear me? It's-ksszk! Of the Lost Light. This message is an experi-ksszk! A failed experiment, I think. Because if it worked, I wouldn't have had to send it in the first place._

_"I'm calling from the future and-wait a second- and I have a-ksszk!- for Rodimus: Abort the mission. Do not leave Cybertron. There are terrible things out there. We were not prepared._

_"But if I've made a miscalculation, and we've already left, please find a way to get this message to Rodimus now. It's a list of do's and don't's. Actually, it's just a list of don'ts._

_"Don't open the coffin. Don't let them take Skids. Don't go to Delphi. And do not- I repeat, do not- look in the basement. And for the sake of the Cybertronian race, please don't-_

_KZZZZZK!"_

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**A/N: I finally finished another chapter!**

**I did not forget all of my other stories, I just have more inspiration to write this story.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and please review!**


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